Had an interview with Teach Away, a Canadian-based company that hires individuals to teach English in foreign countries at the primary level (grades 1-6). The country I was interviewing for is the Republic of Georgia, a former Soviet Bloc country for those of you who are scratching your heads. Interview went very well, and the position sounds like an excellent opportunity to immerse myself in a foreign culture as well as better myself as a person and future employee. I also figure that this is the time to do something like this while I am young and not tied down with children and a wife. We’ll see how things progress.

More in the way of job-hunting, my father has given his resume to a friend of his who works as a partner in a law firm that focuses on business consumer law who is going to help put me in touch with some good contacts. Fingers crossed that this will be a successful venture starting with a good temporary to permanent position I can grow in as well as benefit the company.

In other news, I have been reading The New Google SEO (Search Engine Optimization): What You Need To Be Successful With Google Panda by Kathleen McDivitt, MBA. The book is very informative on the change in algorithms for the Google search engine and how it has effected the SEO field. SEO is used to optimize your ranking on keyword searches performed on Google and prior to Panda and its successor Penguin (not covered in the book), SEO specialists would find very broad keywords and optimize their firm’s position for that keyword. However, now with the new algorithms, SEO specialists need to find very specific keywords to use as well as take into account other factors the new system uses like length of time the consumer spends on your site, repeat visits, etc. Panda and Penguin force online marketers to engage their customers on a more personal level to bring them the service and satisfaction they desire rather than “junk”. Definitely a good read for anyone interested in using social media and other resources on the internet to promote and grow their business. I got the Kindle ebook version of the book for free from Amazon but it appears the price is $2.99 currently, still a steal at that price!

I’ll keep up my updates on the job search and my personal journey to continue my education outside the classroom so check back soon.

Hello again! Kind of got caught up in work and school and forgot about this blog but now I’m back and hopefully for good. I’m going to blog about my job search, new skills I pick up from reading and self-teaching, volunteer work, and my aspirations for the future! I don’t know if anyone’s going to be reading this or if I am just blogging to put my thoughts, feelings, and everything out there for myself. Either way is great to me! I’ll post a new entry inside the next week to lay out my “game plan” (had to throw a sports reference in there) for my future. Adios amigos!

I just finished reading an article talking about Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter, Foursquare and other technology companies, and how they are shifting away from using the antiquated tradition of resumes and turning towards asking applicants for their Twitter handle, Tumblr, or similar social media sites. They believe that resumes do not accurately demonstrate the full image of an applicant whereas viewing their various sites shows a better-rounded picture.

Image via CrunchBase

This makes me wonder if this trend is going to continue and what it will mean for the future of job searching. This topic intrigues me immensely since I am in my last full semester of college and will be officially a college graduate after completing final two courses this summer, meaning I have already started to research job opportunities all over the country in attempt to get a jumpstart on a very difficult job market. This new development (if it becomes widespread) will alter the landscape of applying for jobs forever. Only time will tell if this change in nature will be for the best or for worse.

According to the article I was reading on the topic, many executives want to know who a person is, what they are like as a person, will they fit into the company socially and professionally? These attributes are much more difficult to discern from our old friend the résumé. In addition to limiting the use of résumés, many companies are using online surveys in a capacity that they become “self-filters” to prevent applicants that have no experience or interest from applying for open positions.

Many companies like IGN, subsidiary of News Corp., have used non-traditional methods to recruiting new interns and employees like their “Code Foo” program (see attached link for more details). One of the kingpins of “non-traditional” business practices, Google, still

Image via CrunchBase

use resumes as a “door opener” to start the recruiting process; Google received around two million résumés last year and hired 7,000 new employees. Seeing those statisitics about Google and reading how innovative the Code Foo program was, I realize that I need to step up my Social Media game and look outside the proverbial “box”. I recommend reading the article that inspired this blog post for more details. Long live Social Media, I look forward to a connected future and accept this new development in the job hunting process as a positive move.

I couldn’t help but bust out some of that early 90’s Hip-Hop in honor of my excitement for the Year of the Dragon. I am having some trouble sitting here while writing this; I feel the power, the power that our MSUM Dragons are going to get from this Year of the Dragon.

Today marks the first day of the Chinese calendar. The Year 2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon, a rare occurrence happening every 60 years. In the Chinese Zodiac, the Dragon is by far the most exalted of the twelve animals making up the zodiac. Those born under the Year of the Dragon are said to be fiery and passionate as well as compassionate and honest. It is a very lucky year in the zodiac according to Chinese Lore. When you add 2012 being a Water Dragon year, it makes it even more fortunate of a year. The element of water is viewed as being immensely powerful and signifies a year of great growth. And if you haven’t noticed there is a whole lot of water, around 95% of the world is covered by water which means there is a lot of latent power waiting to be harnessed.

There is a lot of opportunities for the MSU Moorhead Dragons to grow and prosper in this Year of the Dragon, especially our Women’s Swimming and Diving Team whose home is the very element that will make this Year of the Dragon the best one yet. I would keep my eye on those Lady Dragons if I were you; great things have yet to come. You may need to watch closely or you’ll miss them!

I don’t know about all of you but my Dragon juices are flowing as the Year of the Dragon commences. It has to be the Year of the Water Dragon reviving my competitive spirit like a glass of cold water. And speaking of the competitive spirit, the MSUM Track and Field team is primed and ready to make a run at winning a national championship (a run, that’s kind of punny). The ground may be covered with that white fluffy stuff right now but I can assure you that these Dragons have that fiery drive and passion symbolic of the Chinese Dragon burning. Watch out for these quick Dragons because there is no power in the universe that will keep them from making this their very own Year of the Dragon.

Come out and support your Dragon Athletics this year. You never know, this may be your last chance if those darn Mayans are right about that pesky 2012 apocalypse. Wouldn’t you be a little upset if you missed out on this chance to see the might of your MSUM Dragons in the Year of the Water Dragon when it’s all over?

I was watching the AFC Championship game and browsing my social media sites on TweetDeck and I noticed that Kristen Mann, a girl I went to Santiago High School with had posted a link to Facebook Marketing Solutions and I found the Small Business Boost project.

The Small Business Boost is meant to inject funds into participating small businesses; the businesses can receive any where from $150 in Facebook advertising to chance to win $10,000 in advertising. I feel this is a great way to build bridges with these small businesses around the country and makes them feel an affinity for Facebook and more likely to return and add more advertising (and pay this time!). I tip my hat to Facebook Marketing Solutions for this excellent promotion and taking steps to building ties with the American small business owner.

American Marketing Association states clearly six ethical values in their Statement of Ethics: Honesty, Responsibility, Fairness, Respect, Transparency, and Citizenship.

Zappos is a fine example of adhering to the value of Honesty while Enron over ten years ago failed to adhere to the AMA’s values.

I ordered a pair of shoes from Zappos a couple years ago and when it arrived on my door step, the sizing wasn’t correct and I was quite upset. I emailed their customer service in attempt to solve the predicament and to my surprise, they told me to send them back and they would replace them with a new pair in the correct sizing…free of charge. It was outstanding that they would go out of their way to be honest on their mistake and do everything they could to “offer products of value that do what we claim in our communications” they effectively lived up to the ethical value of honesty.

Nearly ten years ago, Enron went from a nearly obscure company to one of the ten largest in the United States by using dishonesty. They created rolling blackouts throughout my native state of California in a dishonest business practice to take advantage of California. In continued dishonesty, they used faulty accounting practices to deceive stockholders, investors, and the rest of the world into believing they were thriving. They made no attempt to “strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times”, their only concern was for their own paychecks and continuing the ascension of their dishonest empire.

Aesop’s Fable “The Old Man, the Boy, and the Donkey” speaks of the three traveling and as they pass different group, they hear criticism on how they are traveling. One group says it’s a shame that the boy is riding the donkey and making the old man walk so they switch up so than another group says it’s a shame that the old man is making the little boy walk. Eventually (after multiple alignments) they are carrying the donkey to please everyone and they lose grip and drop donkey in the water and it drowns…Kiss Your Ass Goodbye. This particular fable is compared by Robert Clay’s article to how in your business you cannot attempt to please everyone under the sun. You have to focus on your niche of customers who will buy your products.

Kunal Bharadwaj’s article “7 steps to utilize twitter as an effective B2B social media tool for ISVs and SaaS companies” really peeked my interest because as many of us know, social media is quickly becoming an integral part of the business world and marketing divisions specifically. It is a very good read, I recommend it to any business student or executive.